Alistair is hardly a surprise, coverage woes and more from the Crank | TriathlonWorld.com - go further. race better. know more.
David Dellow wins Ironman Australia.
Well if this wasn't the triathlons world's least biggest shock of the season so far. Alistair Brownlee winning the Ironman 70.3 North American Championship might have been the "Captain Obvious" moment we all saw coming. In short, Brownlee was always going to rip 70.3 fields apart, not unlike his contemporary Javier Gomez did a couple of seasons ago. Yep, he had some great competition, but anyone who has seen him race ITU style knows his class. And, while he might have been out paced in some of the legs, (big deal) the sum of the parts was enough.
In saying that the Colonel was the resistance leader doing a great job. Lionel Sanders is just so good. Sebastian Kienle, too, was sharp on the bike and his run is a work in progress, but he was very good for third.
Holly Lawrence is proving she is not a one season wonder as well. She was dominant on two wheels and set up a perfectly executed race.
Was great to see Rachel Joyce on the slow burn back into form with fourth place in St.George.
And now the elephant in the sport. Plenty of complaints about the rubbish coverage of St. George. Let's be really clear about this. Ironman does not care about the pros. It has to be said they just don't place or see a value add there. It is not a money maker for them, just a side show. The stars for Ironman are the age groupers because they put butts on seats, meaning dollars in the coffers. And, unless they have something in store that we don't know about, the pro movement will be an afterthought thereafter. Triathlon pro unions etc. have long been a huge joke and have never achieved anything, giving the pros pretty much nothing to underpin them. It is hard to see this changing and, if you think we are painting a gloomy picture about a group of pros who, for the most part, are top flight, then you're right. Maybe the pros could get together and tweet about it?
David Dellow took out the people's Ironman (Australia) ahead of the speedy Tim Reed. Both men are chargers and have impressive wins on their CV's in what was a fitting finish to this race.
The women's saw Laura Siddall finally crack a win ahead of a sub-par field. Siddall's day was commendable, but the drop off in talent behind her was pronounced. Still, you can only beat who shows up, proving our point about Ironman not caring who is where in terms of the pros.
Non Stanford is a jet and proved this again with a win in Chengdu alongside Matt Hauser, who won his first World Cup. A weird distance set up for the final - 400m / 10.2 km / 2.5 km.
Dan Wilson won 70.3 Busselton in a race that went virtually unnoticed. Craig Alexander (remember that guy?) had a second.
Roth pro field announcements always make me feel flat.